Patriot Movement

101: Far-Right Sheriffs

Who These are the sectors of the Right setting the cultural context and/or organizing right-wing sheriffs. Anti-immigrant Right Anti-immigrant organizations like the…

101

A Conspiratorial Life

Author Q&A with Edward H. Miller

A drawing of the globe with a warped perspective to enlarge a red and sickle covered USSR.

A Conspiratorial Life: Robert Welch, the John Birch Society, and the Revolution of American Conservatism, by Northeastern University professor Edward H. Miller is an engaging and penetrating…

Q&A

Black and white circle with text in middle reading "Seven Spheres of Society"

The city of Spokane, Washington sits at the eastern edge of the state—a mountain range and a cultural world away from the Pacific coast. It looks eastward to Idaho and Montana, and south to Eastern Oregon, where far-right secessionist movements have…

Article

Open Map Introduction to Right-Wing Sheriffs County sheriffs have featured heavily in the right-wing imagination…

Map

The murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minneapolis police on May 25, 2020 marked the beginning of a dramatic surge in racial justice and politics accountability protests. The Black Lives Matter movement that was at the heart of those…

Map

Culture and Belonging in the USA

Multiracial Organizing on the Contemporary Far Right

August 4, 2018, the day of the “Gibson for Senate Freedom March,” was a balmy day in Portland, Oregon. Patriot Prayer, a group loosely associated with the Alt Right, had organized the march, calling on like-minded people to “make history today” and…

Article

National Sheriffs’ Association’s Winter Education and Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., Feb. 6, 2017.

Technological tools to increase law enforcement’s surveillance capacity will be showcased at this year’s annual National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA), Education and Technology Expo from June 14-18, heightening concerns regarding law enforcement’s…

Article

Sheriffs are elected at the county level, and in most cases operate without any direct oversight. This presents an opportunity for White nationalists and other right-wing movements, particularly …

Article

U.S President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence look on as Sheriff Thomas Hodgson of Bristol County Massachusetts delivers remarks in the East Room of the White House September 5, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced a new effort in May 2019 to expand the reach of its deportation machine. ICE’s new Warrant Service Officer (WSO) program allows local police officers to effectively become federal immigration…

Article

In Search of New Frames

Q&A with the authors of Producers, Parasites, Patriots

Tea Party rally in Plano, TX, April 15, 2009

A new book, Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity, offers a framework for interpreting and dismantling racist capitalist oppression without getting bogged down in this treacherous narrative of “makers and…

Q&A

Although these state and federal officials tried to distance themselves from militia organizing, New Mexico’s constitutional sheriffs cumulatively have taken actions that signal that militias are welcome in the state.

Article

In August 2018, 16 of Oregon’s 36 sheriffs signed a letter in support of ballot measure 105, the referendum in the November 6 election to repeal Oregon’s 31-year-old sanctuary law.

Article

Standoffs and the Far Right

What Changed After Oklahoma City?

Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building after bombing, 1995.

Twenty-three years ago, on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a powerful homemade truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The death toll reached 168, and about 850 were injured.

Article

Disunite the Right

The Growing Divides in the Pepe Coalition

The relationship between the Alt Right and the Alt Light, as well as “patriot” organizations like the Oath Keepers, has often been more pragmatic than comfortable. And maintaining this coalition has not been easy, requiring compromises on language…

Article

Peas in an Oregon Pod: Right-Wing Paramilitaries & The GOP

The Republican Party of Multnomah County, Oregon (which includes Portland) disregarded public outcry when it passed a resolution last week to allow private, paramilitary groups to provide security functions at GOP events. Chairman James Buchal said…

Article

Trump’s “Second Amendment People”?

The U.S. Patriot Movement Today

Judging from his recent statements, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump seems to be making plans for post-election violence if he’s defeated. At the beginning of August he warned, “I’m afraid the election’s going to be rigged.”^1)…

Article

Right Woos Left: When Patriot Movement Groups Try to Recruit Progressive Activists

Sometimes Patriot movement groups reach out to progressive activists in an attempt to recruit them to their cause. As you would expect, they typically downplay their reactionary social views and stress the more libertarian parts of their …

Article

Coordination: How the Patriot Movement Re-imagines Governmental Ties

“Coordination” is a process which allows state, county, and other lower-level governments to give input to federal agencies’ land use plans, in an attempt to achieve consistency. While this process is mentioned in a number of federal acts, the Hard…

Article

Press Release: Verdict in Bundy Militia Occupation Sends Dangerous Signal

Today Political Research Associates, a Massachusetts think tank that monitors right-wing movements, warned that the surprise acquittal yesterday of seven militia members on conspiracy and weapons charges in connection with their armed occupation of…

Press Release

Taking on Patriot Movement Talking Points

Responding to Patriot Movement claims on militias and gun rights, rural economics, the Constitution, public lands, and conspiracy theories.

Article

Oregon III%

Oregon Three Percenters are very active and seems to have eclipsed the Oath Keepers as the locus of Patriot movement organizing in the state.

Profile on the Right

Press Release: Major Investigation & Toolkit to Aid Oregon Communities Facing Militia Movements

Today Political Research Associates in partnership with Rural Organizing Project released Up in Arms: A Guide to Oregon’s Patriot Movement, a groundbreaking report and toolkit designed to support public officials and community activists under siege…

Press Release

The Oath Keepers in Oregon

Oath Keepers chapters have been active in Oregon since the national organization was founded in 2009. However, most chapters seem to have been established since 2014 in the wake of the events at Bundy Ranch.

Profile on the Right

Gunning for Office: Oregon’s Patriot Movement and the May 2016 Primary

In the wake of the armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in January and February 2016, a slew of candidates linked to the so-called Patriot movement are running for office in Oregon, including in the upcoming May primary.

Article

Profile on the Right: Three Percenters

The Three Percenters (aka 3%ers, III%ers, or “Threepers”) are a Patriot movement paramilitary group that pledges armed resistance against attempts to restrict private gun ownership. Adherents and supporters have been associated with threats and acts…

Profile on the Right

Terror Network or Lone Wolf?

Disparate Legal Treatment of Muslims and the Radical Right

In April 2014, an armed encampment formed at the Nevada cattle ranch of Cliven Bundy as news spread through militia networks about the confrontation between the 67-year-old rancher and the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM began to impound Bundy’s…

Article

Oath Keepers is one of the largest anti-government “patriot” groups in the nation. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) includes the organization in its list of Hate and Extremist Groups and its Patriot Movement Timeline. Oath Keepers differs from…

Profile on the Right

Neo-Confederate Group Forms Paramilitary Unit—While Claiming It Isn't

Michael Hill, president of the theocratic, White nationalist League of the South, has been escalating his threats of violence in recent months. As PRA has previously reported, Hill has gone so far as to call for the formation of death squads to…

Article

AUDIO: Officer Who Pushed CNN's Don Lemon Claims There's a Military Plot For One-World Government

St. Louis County police officer Dan Page is best known for shoving CNN host Don Lemon while the journalist was covering the Michael Brown protests in Ferguson, Missouri. Page has since been suspended after video of his speech to a right-wing militia…

Article

A group of people in suits walking, holding signs saying "We demand decent housing now!"

Founded in 1958, the John Birch Society (JBS) fiercely opposed the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s and 1970s. Decades later, the rise of the Tea Party and the ongoing “Ron Paul Revolution” have helped the JBS make a comeback as it attracts…

Article

Nullification Bills Already on the Move in 2014

Less than a month into 2014, nullification initiatives - legal theory that states can block federal laws that those states deem to be unconstitutional - are continuing to make their way through state legislatures.

Article

PRA Fellows Identify the Right's Latest Push for Power in Salon.com Article

Fred Clarkson and Rachel Tabachnick discuss a push for a Constitutional Convention which would strip power away from the United States and feed it to conservatives in state legislatures.

Press Hit

Profiles on the Right: John Birch Society

The Old Right Reemerges

A sign covered by plants. The sign reads "Get US out! of the United Nations (888) JBS USA1"

The JBS was a major force in the battle against the Civil Rights Movement, and has recently made a comeback, largely via the Tea Party movement and as part of the Ron Paul Revolution.

Profile on the Right

A man in a suit talking into a mic and pointing to his left. A sign on the podium says "Ron Paul, 2012, Restore America Now"

Behind the recent surge of nullification bills in state legislatures there is an ongoing battle for the soul of the GOP—and the future of the union itself. The nullification movement’s ideology is rooted in reverence for states’ rights and a…

Article

CSPOA founder former sheriff Richard Mack speaking at the 2014 PrepperFest Expo at WestWorld in Scottsdale, Arizona on October 26, 2014. (Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) was founded o organize county sheriffs around a mission similar to Oath Keepers—that is, to refuse to enforce laws that they believe are unconstitutional.

Profile on the Right

Article

101: Far-Right Sheriffs

A Conspiratorial Life

Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation

Mapping Far-Right and Anti-Immigrant Movement Alignment with County Sheriffs

Mapping Paramilitary and Far-Right Threats to Racial Justice

Culture and Belonging in the USA

The National Sheriffs’ Association Alignment with Far-Right Groups Undermines Public Safety

How a Right-Wing Network Mobilized Sheriffs’ Departments

The National Sheriffs’ Association Strengthens the Deportation Machine

In Search of New Frames

New Mexico’s Constitutional Sheriffs Pave the Way for Militias Patrolling the Border

Support for Oregon’s Ballot Measure 105 Reveals Collaboration Between Right-Wing Sheriffs and Anti-Immigrant Networks

Standoffs and the Far Right

Disunite the Right

Peas in an Oregon Pod: Right-Wing Paramilitaries & The GOP

Trump’s “Second Amendment People”?

Right Woos Left: When Patriot Movement Groups Try to Recruit Progressive Activists

Coordination: How the Patriot Movement Re-imagines Governmental Ties

Press Release: Verdict in Bundy Militia Occupation Sends Dangerous Signal

Taking on Patriot Movement Talking Points

Oregon III%

Press Release: Major Investigation & Toolkit to Aid Oregon Communities Facing Militia Movements

The Oath Keepers in Oregon

Gunning for Office: Oregon’s Patriot Movement and the May 2016 Primary

Profile on the Right: Three Percenters

Terror Network or Lone Wolf?

Profile on the Right: Oath Keepers

Neo-Confederate Group Forms Paramilitary Unit—While Claiming It Isn't

AUDIO: Officer Who Pushed CNN's Don Lemon Claims There's a Military Plot For One-World Government

The John Birch Society's Anti-Civil Rights Campaign of the 1960s, and Its Relevance Today

Nullification Bills Already on the Move in 2014

PRA Fellows Identify the Right's Latest Push for Power in Salon.com Article

Profiles on the Right: John Birch Society

Nullification, Neo-Confederates, and the Revenge of the Old Right

Profiles on the Right: Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association

The Patriot and Armed Militia Movements

Extremists and the Anti-Environmental Lobby: Activities Since Oklahoma City

The Wise Use Movement

Research